Nothing makes sense.
I haven't been in a Sky-Flyer since I turned six, but the distinct sound of wind buffeting the sides of a metal craft surrounds me.
The world fades, replaced by memories. My father's scowl and mother's bare-minimum glance up from her tablet haunt me. The last time I saw them, they did as they always had—either chastise or ignore me.
That was four years ago, when I was fifteen. I'd left home that day, knowing I would never go back.
The world shifts as the Sky-Flyer banks to the side.
I can't move.
With my face pressed against the floor and my body refusing to obey, I slide along as the craft tilts further. Something warm bumps against my side.
Despite the disjointed thrumming of my heart, I can't remember what set it to galloping, or why I'd be in a Sky-Flyer.
The warm thing lets out a muffled moan and shifts against me. Dread climbs into my chest and spreads outward as I try to move my limbs again and can't.
I pour my efforts into lifting my eyelids, but it takes several tries before they raise enough for me to peek through my lashes.
Gray metal glints in the overhead light, the sterile walls of the Sky-Flyer completely opposite to how I've lived for the past four years. Except for the medical shelters I visit on the outskirts of Embilte every three months for my heats, I've bunked down with my adopted family—an odd band of those unable to make a living within the city limits.
From the youngest preteen, Andree, to the older beta male, Wallen, we cared for one another the way family was meant to.
That's why I left home. I couldn't stand the disdain on the faces of those who should have loved me most. I hated the cold atmosphere of my parents' apartment.
I struggle to lift my head and look down at the thing touching my hip, but give up when it proves too difficult.
When I try to suck in a deep breath, my mouth won't open.
Terror sparks through my veins, but my brain takes a moment to register my fear.
The craft changes direction, pitching forward before making the floor tilt the other way. My limp body gets pulled around my gravity until the warm thing bumps against my hip, changing my trajectory so my legs lead the way downward and my hair covers my eyes.
I almost close them, wanting to give in to the ice coating my veins and the blackness swarming the edges of my vision, but my hair clears from my face.
I wish it had stayed.
Two naked women, both chained in lewd positions, stand strapped to the cargo net in the corner.
Vomit climbs into my throat as I glimpse bruises forming on their exposed flesh and opaque fluid dripping down their legs.
Whatever drug flows through my system beckons me to close my eyes, but I strain to keep them open, terrified the darkness will repeat this scene over and over until it drags me into insanity.
It gets worse.
The Sky-Flyer dips and jerks. For a moment, weightlessness disorients me until the floor slams into my chest and knocks the wind out of my lungs. In the chaos, other noises join the moans—a high-pitched wail, sobs, retching—all muffled. All terrified. All hopeless.
My stomach tightens, ushering the vomit higher up my throat, but I swallow it down and suck in oxygen.
The craft yet again changes directions, and I watch in horror as other bound women slide across the floor with me.
Someone's brunette hair sweeps across my face while another woman's glazed green irises run along my periphery.
I've been kidnapped.
My memory resurfaces in sickening waves until my heart threatens to burst into tiny shards of misery.
Two alphas chased, caught, and drugged me.
Mean eyes, one pair blue and the other dark brown, ran along my body, shining with lust. They promised me my life would only get worse.
I don't want to, but I believe them.
A sinking sense of premonition settles in my guts.
My fate will be worse than the two women strung up in the cargo net.
***
My mind pops into awareness too fast. It hurts. Pain pulses deep in my head, beginning in the fissure of void between the hemispheres of my brain and spreading outward until my skull pounds in misery.
Something flops on my face before gravity pulls it downward. The relief I should feel at waking on my back wanes as the object slides downward, taking my nose with it until my neck tweaks.
A hand. Icy fingers trail across my face as the woman beside me goes lax. A moment later, she jerks again, arms flailing and smacking me once more.
My head pounds.
As though a thousand tons weigh my arms down, I struggle to raise them and push the hand off my face.
The floor under me doesn't so much as quiver despite the clomping of boots heading toward me.
A squeak sounds beside me as someone drags the woman who smacked me away.
Metal clanks against metal before ominous silence fills the room.
The stench of fear, urine, and bleach sear the inside of my nostrils, and a sob builds in my chest.
The eerie silence presses down on me, prompting a surge of yearning for the everyday noises my adopted family graced me with—Wallen's wheezing as he retold a story of his youthful travels, Andree's low humming as he returned from the streets, Zigna's happy chatter as she cooked dinner, and many other sounds I hold dear.
Boots stomp along the floor, but I can't pinpoint which direction they come from. The sound bounces off the walls and builds tension behind my sternum until a thick ball of emotion lodges in the base of my throat.
The glaring light from above me dims, the owner of the boots casting their shadow over my face. I tremble in terror, too frightened to open my eyes to see who it is.
Fingers wrap around my arms and lift them over my head, making my joints scream as they tug my sluggish body along the floor by my delicate wrists.
When I open my eyes, a strange beta smiles down at me, pushes a set of metal doors open with his back, and flings me through, giving me just enough momentum to not get trapped in the door.
I stop sprawled out, my reflexes making me flail.
Another beta male leans over me, speaking words I can't comprehend. He disappears only to return holding a pair of scissors.
Crouching down, he cuts my clothes from me, ignoring my weak attempts to ward him off. The scissors clatter to the floor as he grabs my wrists and drags me across the floor.
My heart seizes as I glimpse the showerhead hanging from the ceiling. The moment he steps out of reach, frigid water pelts my exposed flesh.
I scream and turn my head to the side, willing my body to follow suit. Shivers wrack me as I curl into a ball, my head pounding and muscles jerking as the heat seems to seep out of my bones.
Stinging disinfectant joins the water, dislodging the ball of emotion in my throat. With gritted teeth, I scream until my vocal cords freeze and my lungs struggle to take in oxygen.
The tortuous deluge ends, leaving me shaking in numbness.
Hands wrap around my ankles and yank me across the floor. Dripping and miserable, I sob as the beta male lifts me onto a bench, touching me however he pleases as he situates me into a sitting position.
Dazed and unable to get my bearings, I sit in mute shock as he tosses my clothes into a hole in the wall before grabbing my bicep and hauling me to my feet.
He guides me to another set of doors. Almost as though a switch flips, my brain wakes and begins screaming at me to run. To fight.
Pushing me into a new room, the beta slams the door and leaves me standing with two sets of familiar eyes staring at me.
Naked, dripping ice cold water, I scramble as far away from the two alphas as I can, my heels digging into the floor as my back presses against the locked door.
"Don't worry, Raeni. This is still the easy part."
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